Where to start with Data Mining and Data Science

Gregory Piatetsky answer:

You can best learn data mining and data science by doing, so start analyzing data as soon as you can! However, don't forget to learn the theory, since you need a good statistical and machine learning foundation to understand what you are doing and to find real nuggets of value in the noise of Big Data.

Here are 7 steps to learn data mining (many of these steps you can do in parallel:

Learn R and Python

Read 1-2 introductory books

Take 1-2 introductory courses and watch some webinars

Learn data mining software suites

Check available data resources and find something there

Participate in data mining competitions

Interact with other data scientists, via social network, groups, and meetings

3. Data Mining and Data Science Tools

There are many data mining tools for different tasks, but it is best to learn using a data mining suite which supports the entire process of data analysis. You can start with open source (free) tools such as KNIME, RapidMiner, and Weka

However, for many analytics jobs you need to know SAS, which is the leading commercial tool and widely used.